Compare two futures
Who governs, who benefits, and which terms remain open?
Compare any two entries. Their differences are editorial descriptions, not distances on a common scale.
Life and institutions
Public institutions can still make laws, but access to work and essential services runs through a handful of providers. Switching vendor may leave the underlying dependency intact.
People delegate difficult administrative work while retaining usable ways to change the mandate and run alternatives. Deliberation, review and maintaining those alternatives consume resources.
Practical authority
Formal human institutions coexist with concentrated private technical power.
Human public institutions retain practical final authority.
Benefits and costs
Large providers can coordinate complex infrastructure and investment. Exclusion, weak exit options and private influence over public decisions.
Delegation with effective public contestability. Oversight and alternative capacity slow decisions and require effort.
Practical human governing authorityDifferent or incomplete terms
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. Human final authority depends on the internal constitution; it is not guaranteed throughout this arrangement.
Humans retain practical final authority
Additional project hypothetical. The authored mandate explicitly retains practical human final authority.
Revisable governing mandatesDifferent or incomplete terms
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. The power to replace governing mandates depends on the institutional settlement; it is not guaranteed.
People can effectively revise governing mandates
Additional project hypothetical. The authored mandate can genuinely be revised, beyond a paper right.
A practical right to leave
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether people have a usable right to leave.
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether people have a usable right to leave.
Several self-governing communities
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether several communities govern themselves.
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether several communities govern themselves.
A guaranteed material floorDifferent or incomplete terms
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether everyone receives a guaranteed material floor.
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. Provision can vary with the settlement; a universal material floor is not guaranteed.
Private ownership of productive resourcesDifferent or incomplete terms
Private ownership organizes production
Additional project hypothetical. The authored infrastructure is controlled by private firms or alliances.
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. The economic settlement may use private or common productive ownership.
Continuing biological humanity
Biological humanity continues
Additional project hypothetical. The authored world retains biological humans using its services.
Biological humanity continues
Additional project hypothetical. The authored society retains humans as citizens and decision-makers.
Others’ choice to transform themselves
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether feasible substantial transformation is legally permitted.
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether feasible substantial transformation is legally permitted.
Standing for artificial persons
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether artificial persons have institutional standing.
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether artificial persons have institutional standing.
Enforced limits on selected capabilities
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. Capability restrictions depend on the governing settlement; no uniform ceiling or absence of a ceiling is guaranteed.
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. Capability restrictions depend on the governing settlement; no uniform ceiling or absence of a ceiling is guaranteed.
Visible exercise of governing power
People know who exercises governing power
Project editorial inference. The project describes identifiable firms and human institutions exercising power, without claiming that all influence is disclosed.
People know who exercises governing power
Additional project hypothetical. The authored administrative mandate is public.
Practical independence from a technical providerExplicit difference
Life depends on an indispensable technical provider
Project editorial inference. The authored infrastructure is indispensable, and changing vendors leaves the dependency intact; there is no practical provider-independent operation.
Communities can operate without one indispensable provider
Additional project hypothetical. The authored society can maintain and operate practical alternatives to its AI administration.
Open questions
How much formal government can actually compel the providers to do.
Exit rights, distribution and the status of artificial administrators.
These are authored descriptors. An unresolved feature is not evidence of a guarantee, a conflict or equivalence. Consult Compute Oligarchy sources or Constitutional Delegation sources.